Role Call: The Journey Into Fall – Part 1

by · September 12, 2015

There have been a ton of new roles and project updates over the last few weeks and we just don’t have enough room to talk about them all! For the first time, we’re going to split up our Role Call, a la Deathly Hallows. Check out Part 1 of this week’s Casting News as we follow our favorite Harry Potter cast members in their latest roles!

David Bradley (Argus Filch) will be all over television in 2016! Not only is he still holding down his role on season two of The Strain, he is set to return to Game of Thrones as the horrible Walder Frey and will guest star in the new 13-part series for ITV’s interpretation of the poem, Beowulf. Bradley will join the cast for episode nine, as a tribe leader named Gorrik.

A clip for A Bigger Splash, starring Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort, “the ‘t’ is silent, ICYMI”), has just been released ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Stills from the film have also been revealed, including a gleeful shot of Ralph. We’re not sure if he’s surfing or dancing, but we love it!

In case you really do want to see Ralph cut a rug, take a look at his happy dance at the photo call in Venice for the film:

Last year, we reported that Dame Maggie Smith‘s (Minerva McGonagall) Lady in the Van would get a November 13 premiere in the UK. We now have information on the US release, which according to Variety, will be this December. The film is also on the schedule for the Toronto Film Festival as a special presentation. Fans will also notice some other familiar faces in the film, as Frances de la Tour (Madame Maxime) and Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn) also star.

Speaking of Jim Broadbent, the actor was just revealed to have joined the cast of the limited series, War and Peace. The new production of Leo Tolstoy’s novel is slated to air on three separate channels this January in the US, including A&E, Lifetime and History.

In addition, Jim is said to be attached to a remake of The Go-Between, which has already wrapped production and is slated to air on BBC One September 20. Interestingly, Jim had an un-named role in the 1971 television production of The Go-Between, and will now play the role of an older Leo Colston as he looks back on his life as a teenager. You can read a synopsis of the novel below:

The novel sees a man called Leo Colston look back on the hot summer of 1900 when he was a teenager staying in Norfolk and became the go-between for the aristocratic Marian Maudsley and her lover, farmer Ted Burgess.

The voice of the UK Harry Potter audio books is heading to Australia! Stephen Fry announced last month that he would be heading down under this November for his Telling Tales tour. For information on dates and available tickets, click here.

Fry has also joined the ensemble cast of The Brits Are Coming, playing a man who betrays a con artist couple who are deep in debt to a ganster named Ivanka. You can get a look at Stephen in his new role below, in a still that was released recently.

Stephen Fry The Brits Are Coming

The first image of Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew) from the set of Eye Digress has finally surfaced! Spall portrays 15 different characters in the new drama, previously known as The Special One. Filming wrapped last month on the project, which follows an imprisoned man suffering from delusions and hallucinations. Take a look at the photo below and check out the film when it premieres in February 2016:

Timothy Spall Eye Digress

For fans attending the September 12 Isle of Man Film Festival, be on the lookout for Sir John Hurt! The actor who played Ollivander in the Potter films is slated to make an appearance, including sitting down with Mark Kermode at the Gaiety Theatre. There will also be a screening of one of Hurt’s films. For information, visit their website here.

Hurt has also joined the cast of The Journey, alongside the previously reported Timothy Spall and Dame Maggie Smith‘s son, Toby Stephens. Filming is slated to begin this month in Northern Ireland and Scotland. According to Deadline, Hurt will play Harry, “an accomplished veteran political fixer overseeing the St. Andrews Agreement” in the project that explores a “fictional account of implacable enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness forced to take a short journey together in which they will take the biggest leap of faith and change the course of modern Irish and British history.”

Fall television is nearly here, folks. We’ve seen lots of trailers for new seasons of our favorite shows, including The Vampire Diaries (a few MuggleNet staffers, myself included, are obsessed!). The new season of the CW drama will also bring us another chance to check in on Potter actress, Scarlett Byrne (Pansy Parkinson), who joined the cast as Nora. Stills from the October 8 premiere episode, “Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take”, have been released. Check them out below, along with the new trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w47cS8pJmA

The final season of Downton Abbey is nearly here, at least for fans in the UK! A teaser trailer for the sixth season, set to air in the UK beginning September 20, was recently released and features Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess. Get out your handkerchief as you watch the trailer below, and don’t worry. You have nothing to be ashamed about – everyone’s emotional!

Finally, a new still from Dad’s Army, starring Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour), Toby Jones (Dobby) and Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), has hit the web. A trailer for the film, which will debut on February 5, was also released last month. Take a look!

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That’s it for this week’s Casting News! If you think you’ve spotted a casting announcement we may have missed, send your tip to us via e-owl and check back on Monday for Part 2 of our Journey into Fall!